Throwing batting practice is one of the most important aspects of preparing a baseball team. It is also the one that causes the biggest problems in that you need a pitcher or usually many pitchers to throw the balls to the players. This can wear out many players and coaches. Also, the pitcher for the batting practice must constantly throw the ball in the same place and at the same speed to get the hitters into their hitting rhythm. The pitcher must also know how to throw many different pitches to the hitters so the batters can work on their weaknesses. This usually cannot be done by the players on the team, especially players on high school and little league team who are not of professional caliber. A pitching machine can be used. Pitching machines are sophisticated enough to throw the ball at the same specific height and position over the plate. They can also throw curves and pitches at different speeds. This ideal for batting practice and does not wear out the players. Pitching machines, however, cannot simulate the pitching motion of an actual pitcher. Thus, one of the big objectives of this invention is to simulate an actual motion of a pitcher, however, not wear out that pitcher. Another objective is to simulate a pitcher and also be able to throw the ball at a given position and speed over the plate. Another objective is for the device to be able to throw both curve balls and throw at different speeds while simulating an actual pitcher's motion. There are machines that use large display systems and computerized pitching machines to simulate the pitcher's motion. However, these machines are very expensive. Thus, one of the objectives of this invention is to simulate a pitcher's motion by an inexpensive method. The feature that does this is that an actual pitcher simulates the pitching motion and when his arm comes forward, as in pitching, it trips a switch on a pitching machine that throws the ball.
The pitcher who simulates the motion does not spend nearly as much energy, both physically and mentally, to simulate pitching rather than actually throwing the ball. The simulation motion helps the batter tremendously. It is as if he is in an actual game where he sees the actual pitcher wind up and then throw.